South Sister climb deserves more respect

Peter Frick-Wright/Special to The OregonianFabian Rieping welcomes a sunbreak on South Sister, a popular climb for beginning mountaineers.

Although it's the third tallest peak in Oregon, South Sister doesn't get much respect.

For weeks before my trip most of my friends said the same thing."South Sister is an easy mountain climb," they said.

The word that stuck in my mind was "easy." But now, just below Lewis Glacier, I'm beginning to think the operative words may be "mountain climb."

It's 9 a.m. and my sister, Laurel Frick-Wright, and her boyfriend, Fabian Rieping, and I have been on the trail for three hours. A steadily increasing mist turned to rain as we hiked into a cloud. Now it's coming down hard, whipped by the wind and stinging every time it finds a crack in our rain gear.

An hour ago, Fabian -- who is German -- was singing David Hasselhoff songs. Now, things have turned serious.

View full sizePeter Frick-Wright/Special to The OregonianFabian Rieping wasn't quite prepared for miserable conditions on his climb of South Sister.

"The last hundred feet are just miserable," says a descending climber who camped at the summit. "It was freezing rain and 70 mph winds all night."

Maybe we underestimated 10,358-foot South Sister. After all, no less an authority on climbing than "Into Thin Air" author Jon Krakauer once turned back in fear of the mountain: "In the middle of a twenty-degree snow slope that would be impossible to fall from if you tried, I decided that I was in mortal jeopardy and burst into tears, bringing the ascent to a halt," he wrote in his book "Eiger Dreams."

Of course, Krakauer was 8 years old, on his very first climb. As a group we have slightly more experience, but we also packed light and dressed for the warm August weather from the day before. Underneath our rain gear, we're in shorts.

Krakauer wrote: "South Sister turned out to be a decidedly less than extreme climb that demanded nothing more in the way of technical skill than energetic walking, and was in fact ascended by hundreds of farmers, house pets and small children every summer."

Usually that's true. It is the standard first mountain climb for anyone looking to get into the sport, but our layers are lacking and there seem to be more reasons to turn around than continue. Clouds wrap the summit and we're still 1,200 vertical feet from the top. The wind will only get colder as we go up.

South Sister

The South Sister Climbers Trail (No. 36) begins at the Devils Lake Trailhead past the Mt. Bachelor ski area on Century Drive. The trail climbs about 5,800 feet over 5.5 miles to the summit at 10,358 feet. October can still offer prime climbing, but watching the weather and being well-prepared this late in the season are extra important.

In the spring, climbers will be on snow and should carry an ice ax. Wilderness permits are required and available at the trailhead. Cars parked at Devils Lake should display a recreation pass.

Several unprepared hikers like us are rescued each year from South Sister's slopes. In June, two women got lost and spent most of the night in a makeshift shelter before they were found at 4:30 a.m. A teenager died here in 2006, hitting his head on a rock as he fell. The same year, an exhausted 140-pound Great Dane had to be sedated and carried out by a search and rescue team when it sat down and refused to budge.

No one is playing the role of the pup today, however, and we continue up through the cinders. Brick-red lava rocks slide underfoot and clouds glide through at eye level. We charge up the scree for an hour, regaining lost body heat until the trail flattens out and Laurel informs me, "This is it, we made it."

Taking shelter from the wind behind a solid rock wall on the east side of the summit crater, we pull out our sandwiches. On the other side of our perch, we have a view out over an expansive glacier and the tiny Teardrop Pool that collects the summer meltwater. But from where we're sitting, all we can see are clouds and the rocks we're standing on.

A short trail loops around the rim that on a clearer day would offer views of Middle and North Sister, Broken Top and Mount Jefferson. But when a brief sun break turns back to freezing rain without revealing any of the peaks, we head back down to the saddle where we first contemplated turning around.

We find it packed with young climbers, many in shorts, their mouths slightly agape at the sight of three soaked and frozen hikers descending from the summit. In two days, blue skies will dominate central Oregon and climbers will no doubt summit in tank tops. But right now, as we wring out our rain gear and thaw our fingers, it feels like South Sister is getting a bit more of the respect it deserves.